In person For the v Respondent — 2019

This was a preliminary hearing before Employment Judge Alliott sitting alone by CVP. The issue was whether Mr Ellis was a disabled person for the purposes of the Equality Act 2010 during the relevant period after a road traffic accident on 29/30 November 2019. The tribunal had GP records, a 7 January 2020 letter from a senior mental health nurse referring to anxiety, depression, PTSD, avoidance and disturbed sleep, welfare-call records, and later evidence including an April 2021 consultant psychiatrist report.

The tribunal held that Mr Ellis did not have a mental impairment during the relevant time. It accepted that the GP record on 12 December 2019 recorded anxiety with depression, but found the reality was adverse reactions to life events and work difficulties, including his mother’s terminal cancer, the road traffic accident, and work-related stress. The judge noted that he had never been formally diagnosed with PTSD or depression during the relevant period and treated the later April 2021 psychiatric assessment as outside the period under consideration.

The tribunal also found that any symptoms did not have a substantial adverse effect on normal day-to-day activities. It relied on evidence that Mr Ellis could manage basic hygiene, leave the house, socialise, eat, drive again, attend face-to-face meetings, and was keen to return to work. The judge considered that some of the impact described in Mr Ellis’s statement was exaggerated when measured against how he was coping at the time and his rapid move into alternative employment with David Lloyd Clubs as a swimming pool lifeguard by early August 2020.

Finally, the tribunal held that any condition was not long term and was not likely to last more than twelve months. It therefore concluded that Mr Ellis was not disabled within the meaning of the Equality Act 2010 at the relevant times and struck out the disability discrimination claims for no reasonable prospect of success.